The Vision of Bas Ort

“Size doesn’t matter, quality does.” Bas Ort, lawyer and partner at lawyers’ firm Zwartbol Advocaten is clear about his vision on conducting his business. Zwartbol Advocaten is a middle-sized law firm consisting of ten lawyers and five secretaries. Ort started at the predecessor of Zwartbol Advocaten in 1988. In 1989, he and Adriaan Zwartbol decided to separate from this firm and to continue together.

“Zwartbol and I had a vision to run a regional firm for mainly entrepreneurs in the region between Gorinchem and Schiedam. We wanted to concentrate on only a few jurisdictions”, Ort explains. “Within 24 years we have grown from being a general law firm into a specialised firm with specific in-depth knowledge of the Dutch manufacturing industry which is mainly concentrated in this region.” By now, Zwartbol is retired, Ort is the commercial head of the firm and Lex van Bruggen is his partner in business. The law firm is active in the fields of corporate law, government practice, construction law, public law, employment law, where they mostly represent employers, intellectual property, shareholder agreements and company acquisitions, (maritime) attachments and debt collection. Ort: ”We find solutions to the variety of legal situations an entrepreneur has to deal with in his daily business. Next to that, there is a small part of the firm that deals with law of persons and family law, but these cases are mostly connected to entrepreneurs as well. If you have a steady business relationship with companies, you will have a continuous stream of work, as companies have legal questions on a regular basis. Our firm’s client base forms a steady ground to build up and maintain our law offices.”

Law and technology

Ort describes his firm’s specialism aimed towards the Dutch manufacturing industry as “law and technology come together”. The focus of his practice lies on all existing industrial contract types in various stages of drawing up, supervising all types of discussion and technical problems an entrepreneur could encounter during the process or a project and advising clients about legal, financial and policy matters. Clients include project developers, manufacturers in the maritime and offshore industry, the aircraft industry, steel construction companies, banking institutions and municipalities. Ort: “We represent small companies up to multinationals and our clientele by far is not restricted anymore to the Alblasserwaard region, but is national and international. We also give in-house legal training to management, technicians, engineers and sales people. 80% of our work happens behind the scenes, aimed towards providing solutions and avoiding and preventing disputes.

We operate in a very pragmatic manner and rather wouldn’t want our clients to go to court. Of course, if it is necessary, we can and will play it hard, but finding a solution out of court almost always has our preference. Litigation does not always deliver what you expect and the process involves a lot of time, risk, money and management attention. During contract negotiations, we are often present and we see it as an art to let the client assess the risks, but to close the deal in the end. It is important to give advice about how we think the situation is, not to give an advice the client wants to hear. Our motto is: as entrepreneur you cannot make a commercial decision if you do not know first where you stand in a legal sense.”

International dimension

Talking about proceedings, Ort mentions the discussion about dispute settlement according to Dutch or English law, as the often used English law is being criticised in the Netherlands: “In many cases, English law is applicable to international but sometimes even national contracts, as parties mostly do not want to settle in favour of each other’s country’s law. However in some cases, for instance regarding English law, to my opinion it is not so much the law that causes the aversion, but more the procedural rules and the way litigation is being handled in these countries that makes parties shun litigation. It is a misconception though that a dispute has to proceed in the same country whose laws are applicable to the contract. In the market litigation in England is seen as shockingly expensive. However you can have a dispute according to English law but very well for instance have the dispute settled in arbitration in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands procedures are far less expensive and provide for equal quality and neutrality but are being dealt with in a much more cost- efficient manner as opposed to the Anglo Saxon litigation culture.”

Ort continues: “Therefore, my advice is firstly to propose – of course – Dutch law, but in the meanwhile always have oneself informed about how a contract is perceived under the local laws proposed by your counterparty; it might turn out that this is not even as bad as one thought. If not, English or some other foreign law could serve as a compromise, but in any case, when foreign law is commercially unavoidable, it is worth trying to convince your business partner to choose the forum in the Netherlands; something that shouldn’t be too hard as your partner wouldn’t want to pay the high costs of litigation in England, either. Dutch courts, but mainly several arbitration institutes in the Netherlands, such as the Netherlands Arbitration Institute, are very well equipped for providing such Netherlands-based litigation according to foreign law.”

Growth strategy

Unlike several other law firms, Zwartbol Advocaten is not affected by the economical crisis. “We have a steady turnover and the firm develops healthily”, says Ort. “Periods of boom or trough so far haven’t affected us that much. However, we do see that the content of our cases is different: during low economic activity, for example, we see more terminations of agreements and collective terminations of employment agreements as well as more claims and attachments, as the market is under a higher pressure. This again is the case since 2009. In periods of economic boom, we handle a lot of company acquisitions and investment related contracting work.”

“I don’t have an aggressive, but an autonomous growth strategy”, Ort answers when asked. “There is no policy plan, I follow my gut feeling. I see plenty of opportunities and possibilities for our firm, maybe we will expand to eleven or twelve lawyers. However, our company hierarchy is very flat and uncomplicated with an informal character. I feel independent and that is of great importance to me and my colleagues. We feel free within our profession and I want that to stay the same. I don’t want to be dependent on just one industry, one large client or one legal field. I am very conscious about the various pillars underpinning our firm’s practice and they reflect in my additional tasks: being chairman of our local business club, board member of the Rabobank Drechtsteden, chairman of Holland Marine Equipment and vice-chairman of Holland Shipbuilding Association, just to name a few. They all melt together in a good way. I also encourage my employees to get involved in networking groups, as it is a good way to get to know the industry and its people. We invest continuously and substantially in the education, industry knowledge and specialisation of our lawyers. We have an in-depth knowledge of the industry we work in, which generates a lot of work as our clients can feel that we have a thorough knowledge of their industry, which for sure is one of our strengths.”

Finding good lawyers is difficult, according to Ort: “Especially with our specialisations and the senior clients we mainly do business with. We therefore hardly ever hire lawyers just out of university but mainly look for lawyers with several years of experience. And even then, it takes a long time to get acquainted with our niche markets and the required level of expertise. But working at our niche firm can be very rewarding: our lawyers get a lot of responsibility and personal growth opportunities. I get the impression though that the demand for lawyers has decreased; therefore, it seems somewhat easier to find qualified people nowadays. We also offer internships for law students, legal ecretaries and secondary education students who want to experience if law is the right study for them. Studying law is a lot of work and sometimes can be boring, but law put into practice is great, as it is all about people. I love to show youngsters how interesting our work is.”

Holland Shipbuilding Association

One of the investments in industry knowledge is the firm’s membership of various trade associations. Zwartbol Advocaten is a long-time member of Holland Shipbuilding Association, the central organisation of the Netherlands Shipbuilding Industry Association (VNSI) and Holland Marine Equipment Association (HME). As a (vice-)chairman, Ort makes a few statements: “Innovation and creativity are important to come up with new and challenging products, which are the differentiating factor of the Dutch maritime industry to stay one of the top world players. As you need young, motivated and skilled people to create innovations, I am very pleased with the Human Capital Roadmap to be continued under the scope of Topsector Water. However, companies themselves also need to make a connection with the schools to get youngsters excited about the maritime industry. For this we cannot so much rely on our central government anymore, so we ourselves, companies as well as branch associations, have to invest in education. Another pillar of Holland Shipbuilding Association is sustainability. Together with the regulations relating to sustainability, this will create great opportunities for our members. An example of this is the CO2 agreement, that was recently signed. We also see growth opportunities in the offshore industry. The demand for energy will continue, but oil and gas are to be found deeper under sea level and in more difficult to reach places. Also, safety rules become more strict. All these factors scream for innovations and that is what the Netherlands can deliver.” Ort concludes: “Together, the Dutch maritime cluster needs to show its clients worldwide that we can answer every maritime question and provide for any maritime and offshore innovation within a radius of a 100 kilometres. Where else in the world can one find that?”

Gail van den Hanenberg